Ticket to Write: Illinois’ Metropolis all about Superman

The city Superman calls home seems smaller in person. There aren’t even any tall buildings to leap in a single bound.

Metropolis, at least the one in Illinois, could pass for any small Midwestern burg — well, besides the giant, colorful statue of the Man of Steel outside the Massac County Courthouse.

Metropolis has embraced its legacy as the adopted home of Kal-El, the last son of Krypton. In addition to the 15-foot-tall statue, the city hosts a big Superman festival each summer that usually includes appearances by actors who have played Superman or one of his friends or foes in various movies or television shows over many decades.

The city is also home to the Super Museum, packed full of Super-centric mementos, props, souvenirs and collectables from the 1930s to today.

For the museum’s owner, Jim Hambrick, it all began at age 5 with a lunchbox. By age 10, Hambrick said, he was charging schoolmates a nickel to see his collection of Superman paraphernalia in his bedroom.

“I never looked back,” said Hambrick, who has run his own actual Superman museum for 40 years, 25 of them in Metropolis.

Today his original Superman lunchbox from the 1960s is still on display, under glass. It joins hundreds of other items, some quite rare, some common, but all Super. They include an original George Reeves “Adventures of Superman” TV-show costume and nearly every Superman toy ever produced.

(Hambrick said he even has three mint-condition copies of the original Superman No. 1 comic, each worth a small fortune. They’re stored safely in an undisclosed location — perhaps the Fortress of Solitude?)

Sections of the museum highlight different Superman vehicles, from the original comic books though the Kirk Alyn 1940s movie-serial portrayal, to the more recent “Lois & Clark” and “Smallville” TV series and the latest movie versions.

“He’s as popular as ever, because he changes with the times,” Hambrick said.

Visitors to Metropolis also will find a life-size bronze statue of actress Noel Neill in her guise as Lois Lane from the Reeves television series. Neill died last year, but she had been named “the First Lady of Metropolis” and had visited the Superman Festival many times, including several visits after her statue was dedicated in 2010.